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PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:Extracellular Matrix Mechanics in Disease States
DTSTART:20221129T160000
DTEND:20221129T170000
DTSTAMP:20260407T010636Z
UID:a817e4657bb42b5ad30be3fd843db2300c138646360c3ac7faeaba89
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Joshua M. Grolman\, Dept. of Materials Science and Engin
 eering\, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology\, Haifa (IL)\nBIOENGINEER
 ING SEMINAR\n \nAbstract:\nMammalian cell morphology has been linked to t
 he viscoelastic properties of the adhesion substrate\, which is particular
 ly relevant in biological processes such as wound repair and embryonic dev
 elopment where cell spreading and migration are critical. Plastic deformat
 ion\, degradation\, and relaxation of stress are typically coupled in biom
 aterial systems used to explore these effects\, making it unclear which va
 riable drives cell behavior. Here we present a nondegradable polymer archi
 tecture that specifically decouples irreversible creep from stress relaxat
 ion and modulus. We demonstrate that network plasticity independently cont
 rols mesenchymal stem cell spreading through a biphasic relationship depen
 dent on cell-intrinsic forces\, and this relationship can be shifted by in
 hibiting actomyosin contractility. Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations also sh
 ow strong correlation with experimental cell spreading data as a function 
 of the extracellular matrix (ECM) plasticity. Furthermore\, plasticity reg
 ulates many ECM adhesion and remodeling genes. Altogether\, these findings
  confirm a key role for matrix plasticity in stem cell biophysics\, and we
  anticipate this will have ramifications in the design of biomaterials to 
 enhance therapeutic applications of stem cells.\n\nBio:\nJoshua M. Grolman
  received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Universi
 ty of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016\, under the supervision of HHMI
  Professor Jeffrey S. Moore\, working on pH-sensitive polymers and micropa
 tterned vascular tumor models. He then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship
  at the Wyss institute at Harvard Medical School with Professor David J. M
 ooney\, working on the fundamental mechanisms behind mechanotransduction o
 f stem cells and immune cells. His current research focuses on measuring t
 issue mechanics and architectural changes in the fetal membrane resulting 
 in preterm birth\, mechanical adjuvants for vaccines\, and developing next
 -generation tools to capture real-time mechanical forces in 3D.\n\n\n\nZoo
 m link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/67391810418
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/67391810418
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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